Henry Hank wrote:The impact caused him to leave his feet, that was not a flying elbow.

I file it under careless/wreckless but not intentional. Personally I think careless should be suspendable but they usually don't see it that way.

How does elbowing someone in the head cause your feet to come off the ground? Especially the way he did it.

Was it intentional? I don't know. Looks that way to me seeing that replay. He clearly sees him and then elbows him in the head as Neal skates behind him. I don't even think he had to leave his feet to deliver the blow, but he must have since he clearly did it.

BurghThing wrote:He left his feet to deliver a blow to the head. End of story, minimum 2 games. And if there was any real urgency by the league towards "player safety" all 4 of those on ice officials should be suspended as well.

I have no idea what the outcome of this one will be but I do think officials should have consequences if there is a suspension from a play in which no penalty is called. Of course, this IS the NHL and that could mean there won't be suspensions if there's not a penalty.

Henry Hank wrote:The impact caused him to leave his feet, that was not a flying elbow.

I file it under careless/wreckless but not intentional. Personally I think careless should be suspendable but they usually don't see it that way.

Agreed with your 2nd point, disagree with your first.

I stand by it. There are lots of hits where the impact is so great that the hitter leaves his feet. People always jump to the conclusion that he launched himself into the hit. We have a super slow mo gif of that hit, to me it looks like Del Zotto doesn't leave the ice until after the impact. If he was launching an intentional elbow shouldn't have he left the ice surface before impact?

Apparently there's no review on this. I think this is one of those hits where you see what you want to see depending on which side you root for. The farthest I'll go is that he should have been in control of his elbow and I think the standard should be to penalize/suspend even in "accidents" like this, but it generally isn't. But I don't think this was anything malicious or intent to injure.

Del Zotto? Or did Nash do something? I was at the game and might have missed it

Yup, meant MDZ. Sorry, I cannot talk and type something different at the same time. My apologies.

No trip to the principal's office for Del Zotto forthcoming.

Travesty. Neal gets a concussion from a violent elbow delivered MMA style to his chin. Del Zotto hunches, then explodes upward while spinning an elbow. I have no idea what qualifies for supplemental discipline anymore. That is a complete joke that there was no hearing at all.

Yeah, I wouldn't have minded a second look at it, certainly. But, I'm not going to be nearly as enraged as most people here I wouldn't guess. Unfortunate for Neal though, that's the part I'm most concerned about.

Steve Dave wrote:Was at the game (1st of the year), great atmosphere! Fleury was awesome! Saw Kennedy at Mario's on the South Side. My first time seeing a Penguin in person, felt like a kid again. You could tell he didn't want to be bothered (understandable) but my sister was able to finagle getting a picture with him.

Kennedy is kind of a dud. I'm good friends with his GF and have been around him a bunch of times. He just sits by himself and doesn't say anything to anyone but talk to her. Not the most outgoing personality, thats for sure lol.

Del Zotto? Or did Nash do something? I was at the game and might have missed it

Yup, meant MDZ. Sorry, I cannot talk and type something different at the same time. My apologies.

No trip to the principal's office for Del Zotto forthcoming.

Travesty. Neal gets a concussion from a violent elbow delivered MMA style to his chin. Del Zotto hunches, then explodes upward while spinning an elbow. I have no idea what qualifies for supplemental discipline anymore. That is a complete joke that there was no hearing at all.

This whole argument I keep reading about "intent" from both sides our fans and Rangers fans means nothing. It doesn't matter whether it was his intent to hurt Neal or just his intent to make a hit. Him seeing Neal coming and leaving his feet while snapping both his arms backwards is a dangerous play. The main thing here is he left his feet and made contact with Neal's head. That is a dangerous play and directly resulted in an injury. Intent should only matter after it has been decided he will be disciplined, then it comes into play one how severe his discipline should be.

Inkio wrote:This whole argument I keep reading about "intent" from both sides our fans and Rangers fans means nothing. It doesn't matter whether it was his intent to hurt Neal or just his intent to make a hit. Him seeing Neal coming and leaving his feet while snapping both his arms backwards is a dangerous play. The main thing here is he left his feet and made contact with Neal's head. That is a dangerous play and directly resulted in an injury. Intent should only matter after it has been decided he will be disciplined, then it comes into play one how severe his discipline should be.

I'm dead serious about the repeal of the instigator rule. The refs are inept enough to miss that call completely and the NHL turns away from a penalty that should have been called and results in injury.

Meanwhile they add stupid new rules like 5 minute Interference.

If the players decided what was dirty and dealt with it the game would be safer for the players who stand to get hurt by guys like that chicken-**** Del Zotto. He does not like to take contact, and I am sure he would not like the beating he should have received instantaneously.

That hit looks very suspicious to me. Maybe he was bracing himself, but he looked at Neal prior, and it's not too difficult to throw an elbow there. Only Del Zotto knows for sure if it was intentional I guess....

I know no one likes my relative indifference to the hit and lack of punishment. Here's what Del Zotto meant to do, for those looking for a successful instance of this type of hit. It doesn't go as expected for Del Zotto (as Neal doesn't initiate contact with him as one might expect in that situation), he tries to get a piece of Neal and unfortunately he conks him in the brain bucket. Like I said before, I wouldn't have minded a look at it...but I can't, in all good conscience, call bloody murder here...

MRandall25 wrote:It's an elbow to the head, which should be a call every time regardless of intent. It's that simple.

Along with the Dupuis board, I don't even know what penalties are anymore.

This.

Players have to be responsible for their actions on the ice. An accidental high stick is still a high stick. Whether Del Zotto meant to do it or not, he still ended up pretty vicisously elbowing Neal right to the face. I expected nothing less than a 2 game suspension because of the nature of the elbow and the injury to Neal, but to not even take a second look at it is just insulting.

It was obviously a penalty, and I'm sure it would have been called if the ref actually saw what happened. But they'll always miss stuff here or there.

As for supplemental discipline, there's a gap between throwing the book and doing nothing. Should have been fined by the league and put on the list to be a repeat offender next time. You gotta be in control of your elbows.

Yeah Neal skated as hard as he could and jumped into his elbow. LolI read his lips when he came to on the ice. He asked the trainer if he broke del zottos elbow with his face.

Look. He is a repeat offender already. Chris Neil is still waiting to "even things up" on him.What more needs to be said? It was a elbow to the head. Period.It wasn't a shoulder check. It wasn't contact to a head because of someone's short stature.No chance an "accidental raised elbow to protect oneself from a check" knocks someone unconscious.